Improvement in game-boards



urrnn STATES THOMAS J. VHITCOMB, OF SPRINGFIELD, VERMONT.

IMPROVEMENT IN GAME-BOARDS.

Specification forming part cf Letters Patent No. l 50,735, (lated May l2, l874; application filed March 30, 1874.

'To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS J. WHIreoMB, of Springiield, Windsor county, Vermont, have invented certain Improvements relating to Gaine-Boards, ot' which the following is a speciiication VThe improved board is intended more particularly for use in railroad-cars, and elsewhere under circumstances where .the board is liable to be shaken so as to displace the pieces. I will describe it as adapted for .playing the familiar games of checkers andchess. I. provide against displacement of the pieces by forming the boundaries of the squares with walls, so that the squares become sockets, and receive and hold the pieces against displacement laterally, while presentingnearly the ordinary appearance to the eye. I adopt a peculiarity of construction, which causes the pieces of wood, of which .the several squares or partitions are composed, to be visible on both sides of the board. And I provide trays or boxes, in connection and forming part of `the board, with a cover or door on each1 face, so that the contents may be extractedA at will from either side of the board, as may be required.

The following is a description of what I consider the best means of carrying out the invention. The accompanying drawings form a part of this specification.

Figure l is a plan view of the board with the top and bottom covers of one of the trays partially withdrawn; t-he line s s in Fig. l. Fig. 3 represents a portion of the opposite face. It is shown as broken to represent a portion of one of the tongue-pieces. The remaining figures are sections representing modifications, which will be referred to afterward.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

To make the dark and light squares I employ two kinds of wood-for example, rosewood and satin-wood, or black walnut and pine. A number of strips of black walnut are produced of exactly equal section. Another lot of strips are cut out in -pine ot a Width exactly equal` to each other, and exactly equal to the width of the dark strips. The sides of each strip are grooved, and the width above the groove narrowed a little. A quantity of tongue-pieces Fig. 2 is a section on of a Tlshaped section are prepared. I will designate the dark strips by A, and the light strips by B, and the T- section strips, which y are, preferably, of a third kind ot' wood, as ebony, by C. The stripsare now laid side by side-as, a strip, A, then a ton gue-piece, C, then a strip, B, then another tongue-piece, l, then another piece, A, and so on. `Means being provided for clamping the parts lfirmly together, the whole are glued iutliisposition, and the glue allowed to harden. The shank or central web of the T-sectioned pieces C should be high enough to extend out' beyond the face of the adjacent strips A and B.' After these strips, thus applied together and strongly glued, have hardened into a rigid board, they are sawed or otherwise divided, crosswise, into strips of the same breadth as before, and the strips thus produced are grooved, and prepared, as before, for the reception ot' additional tongue-pieces G exactly corresponding to those previously used. New every alternate strip is turned end for end, so as to bring the dark pieces checkerwise to each other, 'and the strips thus produced are glued together, with the T- shaped tongue-pieces C between them, and the central portionv of my improved board is com- I construct this portion with a hun- Y plete. dred squares. I now plane oit' o r otherwlse remove one of the faces of one tier of squares quite around, and apply plain pieces D. This reduces the board on that side to sixtyfour squares, proper for chess and checkers, while the other side remains of a hundred squares, suitable for the game which is sometimes called Polish. I provide a frame, M, having three cavities. The largest receives the central portion AB C D of the board; the two others, marked Gr II, are trays for the men or pieces. Eeah of these trays G H extends quite through the board, and is provided with a slide or cover on each face. The slides g1 h1 are on one face of the board, and the slides g2 h2 are on the other side of the board. I prefer that the pieces B shall be thicker than the pieces A, so that the Polish board shall have the squares A sunk below the .level `of the squares B. This construction provides inclosing-walls for the squares A, but not for the squares B. In the Polish game there is no occasion for 'putting pieces on the whitev squares.

The dark squares alone carry the pieces, and the-se are encompassed by Walls, formed bythe edges of the projecting portions of the squares B.

The grain of my several strips may be Variously laid, to prevent injury to the board from shrinkage. If care is taken in gaging the width of the several strips very exactly, the Work will apply togetherwith accuracy, and produce a ine effect to the eye. Instead of using a separate tongue-piece, C, I can, if preferred, form the strips so that the adjacent edges shall be tongued and grooved together, by the matching of one strip directly into the next.

Some portions of the invention'may be used without the rest, but I prefer the Whole together, as represented.

The above refers to the form shown in Figs, 1, 2, and 3, which I consider the standard.

Fig. 4 shows the strips C and the adjacent parts, so formed that they correspondingly project on each face of the hoard.

Fig. 5 shows B and Alocking together, and making recessed squares without interposing strips.

lFig. 6 is another modication of the same p an.

Fig. 7 shows the squares matched together Without the faces being recessed.

I claim as my invention- 1. The compound gameboard composed of strips A and B applied together, as shown, and forming a double game-board, as herein set forth.

2. The doublefaced trays G g1 g2, in combination with a game-board, as specied.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 21st day of March, 1874., in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

THOMAS J. WHITOOMB.

Witnesses:

RICHMOND J. KENNEY, SAML. W. PORTER. 

